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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowProsecutors in special counsel Robert Mueller’s office want to ask potential jurors at the upcoming trial of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort about their views of the IRS and Ukraine, among other topics.
Prosecutors submitted a request Thursday to use a 20-page jury questionnaire at the trial scheduled for next month in Alexandria, Virginia.
Manafort is charged in Virginia with hiding from the IRS tens of millions of dollars he earned advising pro-Russia politicians in Ukraine. The former Trump campaign chairman faces a separate indictment in Washington, D.C.
The proposed questionnaire asks would-be jurors about exposure to pre-trial publicity, whether they have friends or family with connections to Ukraine, and whether they’ve ever been audited or treated unfairly by the IRS.
Judges are generally free to accept or reject proposed questions submitted by attorneys.
Separately, a federal judge in the case in Washington ruled Thursday that she will allow a jury to hear evidence seized from one of Manafort’s storage lockers. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson is yet another setback for Manafort, who was jailed last week while he awaits trial.
Jackson said FBI agents did not violate Manafort’s Fourth Amendment rights when they received permission to enter the unit from one of Manafort’s employees who was listed as the locker’s primary leaseholder. The judge also said the warrant wasn’t overly broad and that once agents entered the unit, they went back and got a second warrant before opening any boxes inside.
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